


The Haunted Mask

by brilliantsnafu



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh!
Genre: Friendship, Gen, Halloween, Halloween Costumes, Horror, Knives, Possession, Swearing, Thriller, Violence, a spoopy fic for all you 90s kids, based on the goosebumps book/movie of the same name, but some violence, goosebumps series, mostly threatened violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-19
Updated: 2017-10-19
Packaged: 2019-01-19 11:46:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,047
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12409731
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/brilliantsnafu/pseuds/brilliantsnafu
Summary: A mysterious Halloween shop, a perfectly horrifying mask, what could go wrong?





	The Haunted Mask

**Reader beware–you’re in for a scare!**

Yugi’s breath tore through him as he sprinted through the old warehouse. The small, gritty windows and a few holes in the roof let the moonlight in. It was all he had to make sure he didn’t barrel face first into a shipping container or one of the rotten chairs scattered across the floor. He darted behind several containers near the wall. He glanced to his left as he tried to catch his breath, clutching the stitch in his side. A third shipping container was set perpendicular to the others and the wall, meaning he would be cornered in a dead end if found. He tried all the more to calm his breathing.

Then, quick footsteps echoed through the empty building headed his way. He shoved himself up against the metal container but there was nowhere for him to truly hide. Yugi felt his heart hammer against his chest as the footsteps and a flickering light rounded the corner…

“Yuge!” The face illuminated by the flame of a lighter was the most welcome sight in the world.

“Joey?!” Yugi’s exhale fell between a laugh and a relieved sigh, “what in the world are you doing here?”

“Same as you,” Joey’s smile turned grim as he flicked the lighter closed, dousing them in darkness. “Trying to hide from Tristan.” 

Yugi jerked his head toward where he’d last seen Joey. “What?? I’m not hiding from Tristan. I’m hiding from some demonic serial killer in a Halloween mask.”

“You say po-tay-toe, I say po-tah-toe,” his friend replied.

“Wait,” Yugi grabbed Joey’s arm, “Are you saying the person chasing me with a butcher knife… is _Tristan?_ That makes no sense, Joey.” 

“I know, Yuge, but it’s true. Listen. We went to that new Halloween shop that seemed to appear out of nowhere, right? And they had all the coolest stuff! But they had one wall of masks that stood out as being the creepiest of creepy. They were so real, I swear they were watching me from across the room! Well Tristan absolutely had to have one of them, and with enough prodding and cash he finally got it. He put it on as soon as we left the place. After that… it was like he started turning into a completely different person! On our way back to his house he scared a few people on the sidewalk which was no big deal, but by the time we were in his neighborhood he nearly gave the old lady next door a heart attack, tried to kick a dog, and was laughing… _cackling_ in a voice that wasn’t even his. When we got to his place I told him he’d gone too far and needed to tone it down. But then he pulled out a butcher knife from a drawer and started coming at me, and honestly I didn’t trust that he wasn’t going to use it. His eyes just… didn’t look right. That mask is doing something to him, Yuge. I know it!”

It was a lot to take in, but why would Joey lie? Yugi nodded even though his friend probably couldn’t see it. “Okay. So the first thing we have to do is get the mask off him.”

“Right.” 

Yugi thought he heard something and gripped Joey’s arm. They both fell deadly silent. Footsteps, and they were coming closer.

Joey pulled his arm out of Yugi’s grasp in case he needed to fight. He handed Yugi his lighter. A tall figure rounded the corner. When it was close enough Joey lunged. There was a scuffle and bodies hitting the floor. Yugi flicked the lighter several times before the spark took hold.

Joey had Tristan pinned to the floor and was ready to punch his lights out. But he didn’t need to.

“Tristan?!” Joey gasped, still clutching his friend’s collar, “You aren’t wearing the mask anymore!”

“Yeah, I know,” Tristan said as Joey let him up. He rubbed his neck. “I ripped it off the second you ran out the door. Then I followed you to try to apologize.” Yugi and Joey stared at each other. Tristan continued, “I have no idea what happened back there. One minute I was just having some fun, and then… it was like it wasn’t me anymore. I just wanted to hurt people. I wanted to hurt _you._ ” He rubbed his eyes. “I’m sorry, man. I don’t know what came over me.” 

“It’s not your fault,” Joey said. “I could tell that mask was bad news the minute I set eyes on it. I should have dragged you out of that shop before you bought it.” He stood and offered Tristan a hand, who took it gratefully. They grinned at each other until Yugi spoke up.

“But, if _you_ aren’t wearing the mask…” he looked up from the flame in his hand, “Who chased me–and Joey–into this warehouse?” His friends’ faces both blanched as Yugi said those words. Then an inhuman cackle resounded through the warehouse. 

_“Oh boyssssss,”_ a familiar-but-warped voice called. Yugi snuffed the light as the sound of sharp metal dragging on metal rang through the room.

“ _Fuck_ , it’s Tea,” Tristan whispered. Joey grabbed his friends and dragged them toward the dead end. Without warning Yugi was shoved halfway into an open space between two shipping containers.

“Yuge, go!” Joey hissed.

Yugi realized there was a space between the last container and the next that was just big enough for him to squeeze through. Joey must have seen what he missed when he ran into the abandoned warehouse.

“What about you two?” he whispered as Tea’s footsteps loomed closer to their hiding place. Yugi saw the glint of Joey’s teeth in the moonlight.

“We’ll be right behind you, Yuge! Just go!” Yugi trusted his friends, so he inched his way toward freedom.

_“Ha! I knew you’d be stupid enough to trap yourselves in here…”_ the familiar voice exclaimed. They didn’t have much time.

“How’d _she_ get the mask?” Joey growled.

“Must’ve been right after I ran out the door chasing you. I bet my sister let her in to wait for us to come back. Probably found it on the counter and thought it looked cool. How could trying on a mask possibly hurt, right?” Tristan breathed.

Yugi had nearly escaped when he realized his friends weren’t going anywhere. He watched Joey try to fit between the shipping containers but fail. If Joey couldn’t make it through there was no way Tristan could.

_“Hehehe, here I come!”_

A shadowy figure turned the corner. Tea dragged her knife down the metal shipping container as she advanced.

From where he stood at the edge of freedom Yugi watched two of his best friends prepare to fight for their lives. He didn’t even hesitate on executing the plan he conjured.

Yugi raced out of his hiding place and made as much noise as possible. “Come on! You want someone? Let’s go!” he exclaimed as he kicked the nearest rotten chair. Almost immediately he heard someone following him while two friends screamed his name. His plan must have worked.

He ran as fast as he could but Tea was much faster. Before he knew it she tackled him to the ground. He twisted in her grasp but couldn’t break free. In a patch of moonlight Yugi looked up into the inhuman face on the body of one of his best friends. Tea’s wild laughter rang out as she knelt over him, butcher knife glinting high above her head.

_“Guess this is it for the King of Games. Goodbye, little Yugi.”_ The knife came soaring down and Yugi threw up his hands to defend himself.

“YUGI!”

After a moment of not being stabbed Yugi opened his eyes to realize that Tristan and Joey had arrived just in time. They had both of Tea’s arms in a vice grip. The girl in the mask thrashed wildly, but her friends kept her contained (if barely). Yugi slipped out from beneath her.

“Hey, Yugi,” Tristan grunted as he fought to restrain Tea, “That was really shitty. Don’t ever do something like that again, okay?”

But Yugi wasn’t listening. He knelt in front of Tea and looked into eyes that clearly weren’t hers. They were beady, and black, and full of hatred. She snarled at him in that voice that clearly wasn’t hers. She was still fighting hard to escape, and if Joey didn’t have a grip on her arm near her shoulder and wrist she definitely would try to stab him again with the knife she still held.

Yugi reached up and tried to pull the mask off, but it was like the rubber had melded with her skin. Tea howled in anger and pain until he gave up. Then she laughed at him.

_“The mask only comes off if the wearer wants it off, little Yugi. And I promise you boys, when I get free THIS is the last face you’ll ever see!”_

“Tea…” Yugi took her hand that wasn’t holding the knife. Tristan looked nervous but let go of her wrist so Yugi could pull it towards him. Tea immediately dug her nails so hard into his skin that she drew blood. Yugi winced but continued to hold on even as she attempted to break the bones in his hand. Then he was struck with an idea.

_‘It might be our only chance.’_

“Tristan, Joey! I need your hands.” Joey blinked before realization dawned on him.

“Are you nuts?!” he cried, “It’s taking all I have just to hold her down now, and you want us to risk losing control to do _the hand thing_?” Tea tried to wrench her shoulder from his grasp as if to emphasize what a fatal idea this probably was.

_“JUST DO IT!”_ Yugi yelled through desperation and pain.

Joey looked at Tristan, who nodded. He gritted his teeth and found a way to keep Tea’s knife hand under control while putting a hand on top of Yugi’s and Tea’s. Tristan added his own hand soon after. Tea began thrashing all the more, sensing her chance to break free.

“Tea! _Tea, look!_ Look down,” Yugi pleaded as his friend snarled. Whether she was listening to him or not Tea did look down, and she froze when she saw their hands.

“You remember our symbol of friendship, don’t you? Come on, you have to. You made it for us!” Yugi thought he saw something spark behind those unfamiliar eyes.

“You said it was so we would always remember our bond, even after the ink washed away,” Tristan added.

“Yeah, so now we need you to do that. Remember, Tea. Please. _Please_ come back to us,” Joey begged.

Tea’s hand holding the knife hadn’t stopped shaking since they began this last-ditch effort to reach her. There was one more weak attempt to break free, but then she stilled. Moments passed like hours. Then, the knife clattered to the floor.

The boys turned toward the sound, but Yugi quickly looked back into his friend’s eyes. And, they _were_ her eyes. The cold, black ones had vanished.

Again Yugi reached up to pull the mask off. When it released her Tea gasped like it was the first breath she’d taken since putting it on.

The boys all breathed her name in relief as Joey and Tristan released her arms. However, they quickly reached for her again when she crumpled. She sobbed, and Tristan pulled her to him. Joey rubbed her back, Yugi gently took the hand that had tried to stab him in both of his own, and Tea sobbed harder. The moonlit shadows shifted around them as the four friends sat like that for a long time. Tea wasn’t the only one who cried.

*****

Later that night they left the mask in a smoldering heap on the warehouse floor. They went back to Tristan’s place and didn’t leave each other’s sides until the sun came up. In time they all recovered physically and mentally, but for years to come there was one memory that none of them could shake. When the mask burned, it hadn’t smelled just of rubber and chemicals. As its grin warped inside the flames, the haunted mask had also smelled like burning flesh.

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted on [tumblr](http://ygonerdherd.tumblr.com/post/166525480266/ygotober-days-thirteen-and-fourteen-cursed-and) as part of [askkaibaseto's](http://askkaibaseto.tumblr.com) [#ygotober](http://askkaibaseto.tumblr.com/post/165421476666/askkaibaseto-introducing-ygotober-yall-had-to) challenge.
> 
> Based on the Goosebumps story The Haunted Mask. I actually just rewatched the 90s made-for-TV film for the first time ever. I didn’t really remember the plot (beyond the fact that there was a haunted mask) but about two decades later the climax was still etched vividly into my brain because it scared the living hell out of me as a kid. (Not even “Oh yeah, I remember this” while I was watching it just now. Throughout my life the climax of this damn movie has just popped up in my brain and I all I can do in those moments is go “Yep. That’s some fucked up shit.”)
> 
> And I've just realized I have a thing for italics.


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